Rio Grande Valley needs Proposition 8

Express-News Editorial Board

Updated 5:16 pm, Monday, October 14, 2013

Photo: Eric Gay, Associated Press

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University of Texas Systems Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa walks past a projection screen during a meeting in which regents approved creating a new university in the Rio Grande Valley with a medical school.

University of Texas Systems Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa walks past a projection screen during a meeting in which regents approved creating a new university in the Rio Grande Valley with a medical school.

Photo: Eric Gay, Associated Press

Rio Grande Valley needs Proposition 8

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SAN ANTONIO — Proposition 8 would repeal an amendment that severely limits a South Texas community's taxing authority if it establishes a hospital district.

The proposition does not affect most Texans directly, but it could help the Rio Grande Valley County tremendously as the University of Texas System moves forward with plans to establish a medical school in one of the most economically disadvantaged and medically underserved regions in the state.

With voter approval, Proposition 8 would repeal an amendment approved in 1960 that allowed the Legislature to create a hospital district in Hidalgo County with a maximum tax rate of 10 cents per $100 valuation of property.

While a tax-rate ceiling may have made a lot of sense more than 50 years ago, it is not very practical in today's world. When the amendment now in the Constitution was approved, Hidalgo County was very rural and agricultural and had a high rate of uninsured residents just as it does today.

The amendment was intended to address the needs of counties with a population of less than 190,000 that might want to create a hospital district but fell short of the population requirements that were in place at the time.

Hidalgo County never took advantage of the amendment and today remains the largest county in Texas without a hospital district.

But with a medical school on the horizon, that situation could be changing.

Repealing the amendment specific to Hidalgo County would place the county under the law that covers all other hospital districts in the state, allowing a maximum tax rate of 75 cents.

Hidalgo County should be treated like other comparable counties in the state.

Hospital districts use tax dollars to provide indigent health care services. The creation of such a district would require the approval of Hidalgo County voters, and a tax would be imposed only after the district exists.

Texas communities that are home to a public medical school have hospital districts and that seems to be the next logical move for Hidalgo as the first professional school south of Kingsville takes shape.

It is ridiculous that taxpayers in Hidalgo County in South Texas need approval from the rest of the state to tax themselves more.

This situation is another example of the Texas Constitution being clogged with amendments that never belonged in a state Constitution in the first place.

There have been 475 amendments to the Constitution since it was adopted in 1876, and voters will continue going to the polls to add more fixes to items that are germane to only a small segment of the population.

In this case, the fate of this very region will likely be determined by voters who live hundreds of miles from the affected area.

We urge voters to cast ballots
for the amendment, and not skip it over on the ballot.